Planning Committee

Hisham Almiraat

Coordination

ha2

Hisham Almiraat is director of Global Voices Advocacy (Advox), an international organization advocating for freedom of expression online. He's also a medical doctor and an activist passionate about citizen media and MENA politics. Prior to working with Global Voices, Hisham co-founded Mamfakinch.com, an award-winning Moroccan citizen-media platform dedicated to freedom of expression in Morocco. Follow him on Twitter: @almiraat.


Jillian York

Programme

Jillian

Jillian C. York is Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Her work focuses on free expression, with a focus toward the Arab world. She is a frequent public speaker and has written for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, and CNN. With Katherine Maher, she has a regular web show, Interrobang‽, hosted on Bloggingheads.tv


Ramsey George

Accommodation / Logistics

ramsey

Ramsey George co-founded 7iber.com, where he works with communities around the Middle East in using new media as an outlet of expression, a space for critical conversations, and for organizing collective actions. He lives in Amman, Jordan.


Georgia Popplewell

Accommodation / Logistics

Georgia

Managing Director of Global Voices Online, Globalist, Trinidad and Tobago/Caribbean citizen, lover of books, bicycles, film, photography, jazz, travel, architecture, and justice for all.


Ivan Sigal

Accommodation / Logistics

Ivan

I'm Global Voices’ executive director, since the middle of 2008. Prior to working with GV, I spent 10 years working in media development in the former Soviet Union and Asia, supporting and training journalists and working on media co-productions. I'm also a photographer, and have worked and traveled in 80 countries. In 2012 I published White Road, a chronicle of travel in Central Asia. I'm a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. I speak Russian, manage in German, have forgotten Slovak and Czech, and can make it home in Thai. You can find me on Twitter at @ivonotes.


Mohamed ElGohary

Webmaster

Mohamed ElGohary is a Cairo based Entrepreneur/Blogger/Social Media Expert. Mohamed works as Global Voices Online Lingua Coordinator and Arabic Lingua Editor, as well as Global Voices Advocacy. His work ranges from supporting the 35 languages where Global Voices is translated to, plus working on increasing Arabic content on the Internet. He is also a co-founder at The Workshops. Mohamed also has a passion for Social Media, Translation, Editing, Training and IT literacy. On a side note, he volunteers as a Translation Moderation team member for Arabic Twitter.


Jeremy Clarke

Webmaster

Jeremy

Jeremy Clarke is a human web developer from Montreal. He loves his job building Global Voices and participating in open-source software like WordPress.


Mohamed Najem

PR / Community Management

MoNajem

Mohamad Najem is advocacy and policy director at Social Media Exchange (@SMEX). He has initiated and contributed to several successful online campaigns, such as #stopthislaw and Protect Privacy, and is currently focused on bringing together knowledgeable and progressive voices to push for sound Internet governance in the Arab region. He tweets as @MoNajem and blogs for SMEX and Global Voices Advocacy.


Leila Nachawati

PR / Community Management

Leila Nachawati

Leila Nachawati is a Spanish-Syrian writer and human rights activist based in Madrid. Professor of Communications at Carlos III University, where she is currently pursuing her PhD, she contributes to several media such as El Mundo, Al Jazeera English, Global Voices Online and Global Voices Advocacy. She is part of a team that has recently launched Syria Untold, a digital archive and content aggregator focused on Syrian grassroots work and creative resistance.


Antoun Issa

PR / Community Management / Editorial Desk

Antoun

Antoun Issa is the News Editor for Al-Monitor, based in Beirut.


Ellery Biddle

Editorial Desk

Ellery Biddle

I am the editor of Global Voices Advocacy and a long-time member of the Global Voices community. I am thrilled to be here at AB14 — my first conference in the Arab World! In recent years, I have worked as a researcher and advocate for free expression, access to information, and open structures for Internet governance, with a particular focus on Latin America. My addiction to studying human rights and technology first developed in Cuba, where I've conducted extensive research on blogging communities and the politics of online expression. Read more about my work there on my blog, half-wired, or follow me on Twitter.


Amira Al Hussaini

Editorial Desk

Amira

Amira Al Hussaini is a Bahraini journalist, translator, editor and blogger. She is currently the Middle East and North Africa Regional Editor at Global Voices Online, an international network of bloggers, translators, and citizen journalists who follow, report, and summarize what is going on in the blogosphere in every corner of the world. Based in Bahrain, Amira tweets about the Middle East at @JustAmira


Doreen Khoury

Technical Support

doreen

Tweeting about Lebanese politics & society. Special focus on the Syrian uprising these days.

Lebanon · tajaddod-youth.com/category/blog


Geraldine de Bastion

Technical Support

Geraldine

Geraldine de Bastion is an international consultant with a multicultural background based in Berlin, Germany. She is an expert on information and communication technology and new media for development and advises governmental organisations, NGOs and businesses on digital media and communication strategies. She also works with activists and bloggers around the world.


Eddie Avila

Evening Events Supervision

eddie

Joined Global Voices in 2005 as a volunteer author writing about Bolivia. From 2007-2010, I was the Latin America and Spanish Language Editors at Global Voices, and now currently lead Rising Voices. Follow me on Twitter (@barrioflores)


Mohammad alQaq

MC

qaq

Mohammad alQaq is a visual artist, with a BA in fine arts & visual communication. He has 6 years of work experience at Rubicon as Art Director. By the end of 2005, he decided leave the corporate industry to embark on various personal projects. In the same year, He represented Jordan in France’s International Digital Media Meeting. Mohammad uses different platforms to express his ideas: he's a singer and filmmaker. He's also a practicing actor, presenter, and photographer. He often serves as a judge panelist for creative graduation projects at several Jordanian universities. mohammad is also a trainer for the dance fitness exercise, Zumba. His popular blog “Khobbeizeh”, the first video-blog in the arab region, allowed him to venture into the world of media, paving the way for different initiatives such as establishing “sha3shaboneh”, the first Jordanian blogging meeting; participating in the Freedom Messengers Network; and joining 7iber's team, as Creative Director and Multimedia Trainer.